LOS ANGELES -- Things have really turned on their head for Addison Russell.
The Cubs' 22-year-old prodigy at short had a breakout season in terms of power in 2016, clubbing 21 homers and driving home 95 runs. Heading into Game 4 of the NLCS, however, things weren't going quite so well.
In Russell's final 10 regular-season games, he hit .097 with no homers and two RBI. Through the first three games of the NLCS, Russell was 1 for 24 with nary an RBI. Add it up and Russell was 4 for his last 55 (.072) before Game 4 with no homers and two RBI. That's some kind of funk. It's almost impressive that he was able to not start breaking stuff in the middle of the dugout, really.
Then he, along with teammate Anthony Rizzo, busted out in Game 4.
In Game 5? Russell had the proverbial Big Blow for the second consecutive night in the Cubs' 8-4 victory:
Russell had three hits in Game 4 and two in Game 5, meaning he had more hits, home runs and RBI on October 19-20 combined, respectively, than he did from Sept. 20 through Oct. 18.
Still, even in the funk, Russell says he never got too down on himself.
"I feel like my at-bats haven't been that bad this whole postseason, but you stick to your work ethic and you believe in yourself and you stay confident," he said. "There's a little frustration there, but it's a different type of frustration. It's a frustration where you know you have the stuff to get the job done, but you want to help produce for your team and for your offense. And that's where I was kind of struggling a little bit with that frustration. But my confidence was up, and last night was a great night, pushing me forward to [Thursday], and now just try to carry it over to Saturday."
And if Russell comes through again on Saturday during Game 6, he might well put the Cubs in their first World Series since several decades before he was born.
